MarMon: How college students bring an unrivaled energy to the Boston Marathon
While runners take to the streets, college students throw some of the year’s biggest parties.
While much of Boston will celebrate the 129th Boston Marathon come Monday, its college students will celebrate a certain type of holiday. Enter: MarMon.
Across colleges and universities, students from schools like Boston University, Northeastern, and Boston College, there’s an air of excitement leading up to a special day of letting loose. Parallel to the race are some of the biggest parties of the year that begin at the crack of dawn on Patriots Day.
“MarMon to me is a day off from school, a day to see the marathon, and a day to party with my friends … It’s one of the greatest traditions,” said Noah Lenkin, a senior at Boston University.
Lenkin and thousands of others plan to begin partying early. He started around 9 a.m. last year and felt that he was arriving too late to “Borgston University” parties.
MarMon overtakes fraternity-concentrated areas and apartments especially near the Marathon route. A typical schedule for a student joining MarMon is to begin their day at a party until around the middle of the day. Afterwards, students will typically migrate to cheer on runners before heading to bars in the Allston or Fenway neighborhoods.
Geneva Fischer is a longtime Massachusetts resident, current Northeastern fourth year student and president of Northeastern Club Running. As a runner, the marathon is one of her favorite parts of the day, but the “double holiday” energy makes it undeniably special.
“It is so big that everything else disappears,” said Fischer. “We’re here to celebrate and be excited.”
Daytime parties – commonly known as “darties” – are filled with costumes, borgs, and wild memories. They can be found across off-campus housing options in the morning of Marathon Monday.
“If you walk outside in Mission Hill, Roxbury, you will find swarms of people dressed in their party clothes,” said Fischer, noting that it is a hot spot. “People come up the hill and wander until they find a party which is not hard to do.”
Near Boston University, a dense horde of students from various colleges typically congregate around Pratt and Ashford Streets, beginning as early as 7 a.m. In 2024, Boston police officers responded multiple times to reports of a loud party in the neighborhood. A man fell out of a second-story window at 72 Gardner St.
Last year, two students decided to bring joy into the kitchen at the nearby apartment complex. Students Rafaele Dimaggio and Axel Bautista Tienda coined themselves “The MarMon Cheesers” and assembled a task force of students to make cheesy food for ravenous college kids during the day.
“[T]here is no food source, so we thought to ourselves that we should feed them and help them sober up a little,” said Bautista Tienda.
The Cheesers deliver food and water via a bucket they drop out of a window on a string as well as “waiters” that serve the crowds from the ground, wearing old aprons or other forms of identification. Last year, they dreamed up the idea to serve pizza; this year they have been preparing to serve quesadillas with a team of over 35 students.
Efforts to curb unsafe drinking from some colleges have been somewhat successful. At Boston College, one student described how a concert and increased police presence has helped.
Northeastern student Michael Nunez is in his fourth year of school and will be running the marathon for the second time. He said the tipsy energy from the crowds fuels him as he treks into Boston.
“One of the best parts about the marathon for me is the cheering because people are a little drunk so their energy is unlike anything else,” said Nunez.
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